2017 Schedules as they face GT

Longestday

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Pitt plays three non-conference games before playing @ GT. These are not all cupcake games and match GT's schedule. I call this a neutral schedule.

UNC plays Cal, Lou, cupcake, and Duke before playing @GT. I would call this a neutral schedule. GT is far enough into the schedule that keeps the focus off practicing for our offense.

GT's bye week on October 7th... decent schedule advantage to have a bye at week 6. I do think this may be a week early to help with the midterm football blues.... Duke 2014 was on October 11th.... we play Miami October 12th.

Miami plays 3 cupcakes, Duke, FSU and has an open date before Tech. Miami is predicted to be 4 and 1 as they face GT in Miami. GT may have midterm blues this week as well. I think this schedule is very favorable to Miami.

WF plays Clemson and FSU followed by a bye before playing @GT. The schedule is a WF advantage due to the bye. GT will need to mentally bounce back if they had issues in Miami.

Clemson has a bye before playing GT @Clemson. This is a advantage Clemson.

Virginia plays UNC, Duke, Boston, and Pitt before playing GT at home in week 10. No bye and 4 ACC games. But GT plays @ Clemson before traveling for a second week in a row. If GT beats Clemson this game becomes a huge trap for GT. Advantage to Virginia due to second away game and after Clemson.

VT has a bye week followed by UNC, Duke, @Miami before facing @GT in Week. GT should be rolling in Week 11 if we have that kind of team. No bye week with a second travel game in a row for VT is beneficial for GT. Advantage GT.

Duke has a bye and Army before playing GT at Duke's home in week 12. This schedule is very favorable for Duke. Random my A** to have a bye and army before GT.

Georgia has 4 SEC games before playing @GT.... Neutral to GT who has just played 6 ACC games.


Our two toughest games have byes (Miami and Clemson) and GT plays them at their house.
 

SecretAgentBuzz

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Well done, longestday. Thanks for doing the research.

Ugh. Anybody who says that this stuff doesn't matter is fooling themselves. Our margin between an 11-win season and a 6-win season is already quite thin. It's often these little details that make the difference in a close game. Those who say that "it all evens out" are not paying close attention. I don't necessarily buy into all the conspiracy theories, but this does seem to happen to us year-in and year-out. Regardless, though, there will always be factors against us and there will always be obstacles to overcome. Here's to hoping we can overcome in 2017! Go Jackets!
 

augustabuzz

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Well done, longestday. Thanks for doing the research.

Ugh. Anybody who says that this stuff doesn't matter is fooling themselves. Our margin between an 11-win season and a 6-win season is already quite thin. It's often these little details that make the difference in a close game. Those who say that "it all evens out" are not paying close attention. I don't necessarily buy into all the conspiracy theories, but this does seem to happen to us year-in and year-out. Regardless, though, there will always be factors against us and there will always be obstacles to overcome. Here's to hoping we can overcome in 2017! Go Jackets!
Last year, the ACC scheduled us to lose to Clemson and Miami. The "random" bye + Army leading to our game may work against Duke given that it is so late in the year. When you get to November, it's all about depth.
 

Whiskey_Clear

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I usually count our midterm game a L if we are playing a team of near equal strength. That game has been very tough for us at times despite opponent relative strength. I highly doubt we beat Miami on the road with the schedule diasadvantage here.

Clemson looks like a loss most likely as well. Duke has a schedule advantage but I agree it most likely won't help them very much. It does make the game tougher though as they will be more experienced defeating cuts :D So I say we drive block their asses into oblivion, #more pancakesthanIHOP.
 

Sideways

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We should be very happy to come out of Miami or Clemson with a W. If we win one of those, no reason we shouldn't win the Coastal.
We pretty much will have to win one or the other plus beat Virginia Tech. It is really quite extraordinary that so many of our opponents manage in one way or the other to secure bye weeks or some other scheduling advantage prior to playing us. It is as though the ACC intended to help them out. Gee, you would think by now we would be at the cool kids table with UNC, Duke, NC State, Clemson and Virginia.
 

305jacket

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I remember joking the day before the schedule came out, "cant wait to see how the ACC can manage to scr** us again". Then upon looking at what happened I was actually surprised because it was even worse than I thought it could be. It really was unbelievable. The Duke "Bye - army" before us is the most absurd thing I have ever seen. They will have a month's straight practice for us.
 

forensicbuzz

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I remember joking the day before the schedule came out, "cant wait to see how the ACC can manage to scr** us again". Then upon looking at what happened I was actually surprised because it was even worse than I thought it could be. It really was unbelievable. The Duke "Bye - army" before us is the most absurd thing I have ever seen. They will have a month's straight practice for us.
And we'll still wipe the field with them.
 

TheSilasSonRising

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When we have to worry because duke is playing Army before us - still very sad state of affairs.

We will probably be 1 - 4 vs um in the next 5 regardless of when & where we play them. What is different from being 2 - 7 in last 9 except they now have better coach and recruiting than they have had before?

If you are good enough the rest does not matter. Paralysis by analysis.
 

Deleted member 2897

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When we have to worry because duke is playing Army before us - still very sad state of affairs.
.

The bottom line is this - we have a significantly worse winning percentage in ACC play when the other team has a Bye week before playing us. It doesn't matter what the reason is or if it feels justified or not - it just is what it is. So again, it doesn't matter who the team is - there is just simply no reason to give anybody an unfair scheduling disadvantage.
 

FredJacket

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This is all fine to discuss in May. I put it in the category of "interesting" ... and I do wonder what ALL the schedulers factor in. I have my suspicions that Ga Tech (and other schools) may not get totally fair treatment scheduling-wise.

But I'll point out for the sake of "tough love" among family here. In the span between Sept-Nov... what matters is what happens between the lines. Execute better than the dudes on the other sideline and we pile up W's... fail at that... and we don't. The scheduling stuff probably factors in... but minimally compared to execution.

Can anyone point to any post ever on this board (I'm not researching it ;)) AFTER a Ga Tech win where one among us pointed to the schedule and said we WON because of the schedule? We tend to make excuses (or lay blame) for losses in very different places than where we credit our wins... which makes no logical sense.
 

Deleted member 2897

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This is all fine to discuss in May. I put it in the category of "interesting" ... and I do wonder what ALL the schedulers factor in. I have my suspicions that Ga Tech (and other schools) may not get totally fair treatment scheduling-wise.

But I'll point out for the sake of "tough love" among family here. In the span between Sept-Nov... what matters is what happens between the lines. Execute better than the dudes on the other sideline and we pile up W's... fail at that... and we don't. The scheduling stuff probably factors in... but minimally compared to execution.

Can anyone point to any post ever on this board (I'm not researching it ;)) AFTER a Ga Tech win where one among us pointed to the schedule and said we WON because of the schedule? We tend to make excuses (or lay blame) for losses in very different places than where we credit our wins... which makes no logical sense.

OK, here you go.

This fall will be CPJs 10th season at Tech. If everything were perfectly average, we should have had 10 Bye Weeks, and our opponents should have had 10 Bye Weeks before playing us. We indeed will have our 10th. But our opponents will have had 20. TWENTY.

Go back and look up what our ACC win percentage is when we get a Bye and the other team doesn't. The samples are small, but in the past 5 years (that's all I went back) we've had a Bye Week 3 times when the other team didn't, and we won them all. 3-0. There were 7 instances in the last 5 years where the other team had a Bye Week and we didn't - we went 3-4 over those 7 games.

Over the last several years, we've not been a team that goes 8-0 in ACC play every year, nor have we been a team that goes 3-5 in ACC play every year. So both of those datapoints stand out like a sore thumb.

There just is no reason to give any team an unfair disadvantage. Especially a team that requires a significantly different approach to pre-game preparation.
 

vamosjackets

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This is all fine to discuss in May. I put it in the category of "interesting" ... and I do wonder what ALL the schedulers factor in. I have my suspicions that Ga Tech (and other schools) may not get totally fair treatment scheduling-wise.

But I'll point out for the sake of "tough love" among family here. In the span between Sept-Nov... what matters is what happens between the lines. Execute better than the dudes on the other sideline and we pile up W's... fail at that... and we don't. The scheduling stuff probably factors in... but minimally compared to execution.

Can anyone point to any post ever on this board (I'm not researching it ;)) AFTER a Ga Tech win where one among us pointed to the schedule and said we WON because of the schedule? We tend to make excuses (or lay blame) for losses in very different places than where we credit our wins... which makes no logical sense.
I suspect that Execution and Bye Weeks have significant correlation. This is to be expected since a bye week = another week to focus on execution vs a particular opponent, not to mention rest and healing from injury.
 

FredJacket

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OK, here you go.

This fall will be CPJs 10th season at Tech. If everything were perfectly average, we should have had 10 Bye Weeks, and our opponents should have had 10 Bye Weeks before playing us. We indeed will have our 10th. But our opponents will have had 20. TWENTY.

Go back and look up what our ACC win percentage is when we get a Bye and the other team doesn't. The samples are small, but in the past 5 years (that's all I went back) we've had a Bye Week 3 times when the other team didn't, and we won them all. 3-0. There were 7 instances in the last 5 years where the other team had a Bye Week and we didn't - we went 3-4 over those 7 games.

Over the last several years, we've not been a team that goes 8-0 in ACC play every year, nor have we been a team that goes 3-5 in ACC play every year. So both of those datapoints stand out like a sore thumb.

There just is no reason to give any team an unfair disadvantage. Especially a team that requires a significantly different approach to pre-game preparation.
I'm pretty sure we're in agreement. I certainly agree there should be NO reason for Tech to get a disadvantage in scheduling. And as I said, it seems they do which is a stain on the ACC. My main point is I still believe so many other factors are at play in winning & losing a game.

I do think this is one several sort of intangible things CPJ uses to an advantage internally & with the media/PR. His smug (feature not flaw) way of working the US v the world thing without looking like a whiner. He's good at it.
 

Sideways

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The bottom line is this - we have a significantly worse winning percentage in ACC play when the other team has a Bye week before playing us. It doesn't matter what the reason is or if it feels justified or not - it just is what it is. So again, it doesn't matter who the team is - there is just simply no reason to give anybody an unfair scheduling disadvantage.

I once read an article in which each ACC team was "analyzed" briefly by a couple of conference coaches incognito. One of them said, in so many words, about Tech: "...they are absolutely the worst team to face in a quick turnaround because everything they do on offense is different..." Seems pretty much the reason for all the bye week and scheduling shenanigans.
 

Sideways

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OK, here you go.

This fall will be CPJs 10th season at Tech. If everything were perfectly average, we should have had 10 Bye Weeks, and our opponents should have had 10 Bye Weeks before playing us. We indeed will have our 10th. But our opponents will have had 20. TWENTY.

Go back and look up what our ACC win percentage is when we get a Bye and the other team doesn't. The samples are small, but in the past 5 years (that's all I went back) we've had a Bye Week 3 times when the other team didn't, and we won them all. 3-0. There were 7 instances in the last 5 years where the other team had a Bye Week and we didn't - we went 3-4 over those 7 games.

Over the last several years, we've not been a team that goes 8-0 in ACC play every year, nor have we been a team that goes 3-5 in ACC play every year. So both of those datapoints stand out like a sore thumb.

There just is no reason to give any team an unfair disadvantage. Especially a team that requires a significantly different approach to pre-game preparation.

Giving Paul Johnson an extra week is tantamount to the kiss of death. That said, if I am the athletic director I would complain long and loud about this sort of treatment. When Miami and UNC were committing multiple recruiting violations that were so heinous as to actually prompt the aging dinosaur NCAA to awaken from its slumber there was nothing from the ACC other than tsk tsk boys will be boys.
 
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